Battleship Captain is a "miniatures" game system with scenarios played on the tabletop or floor, using the rules and ship counters provided. (You may freely substitute metal miniatures if you wish.) The game emphasized playability, as players maneuver their ships and try to defeat the enemy. The counters (measuring 2.5" x 5/8ths inch) are printed in black ink on different colored cardstock, and need to be mounted and separated prior to play. Game scale is seven turns per hour, and 1000 yards per inch. Ships are rated, right on their counter, in the following categories: name, nationality, ship type, year, flotation, stern-broadside-bow fire ratings, movement, armor, and nine "special characteristics" ratings, plus an overhead scale view of the ship's deck. To give some examples, here are several ships from different eras to provide an idea of what ratings look like:
Pre-Dreadnought Type Flotation Main Guns Fire Level Fire Ratings Movement Armor Special
Canopus (Britain, 1897) B 6 12" x 4 N 3 - 5 - 3 6 3 X, Y, Z
Azuma (Japan, 1901) AC 4 8" x 4 P 2 - 3 - 2 6 4 X, Y, Z
Nakhimov (Russia, 1890 ) C 4 6" x 8 R 1 - 1 - 1 5 2 N, Z
Kronprinz Rudolph (Austria, 1891) OB 3 12" x 3 Q* 2 - 2 - 1 4 5 N, Z
Brennus (France, 1895 ) B 5 13" x 3 P** 1 - 3 - 2 5 9 N, Z
Pelayo (Spain, 1890 ) OB 4 12" x 2 Q 1 - 2 - 1 4 6 N, Z
Dreadnought
Type Flotation Main Guns Fire Level Fire Ratings Movement Armor Special
Dreadnought (Britain, 1906) BB 9 12" x 10 J** 10 - 12 - 8 7 10 X, Y
Goeben (Germany, 1911) BC 11 11" x 10 I** 10 - 14 - 8 9 11 Y
San Giorgio (Italy, 1910) AC 5 10" x 4 Q* 1 - 3 - 1 7 5 Y
Delaware (USA, 1909) BB 10 12" x 10 H** 10 - 16- 6 6 10 --
Saida (Austria-Hungary, 1914 ) CL 3 4" x 9 S 0 - 1 - 0 8 1 D,N,Y,Z
Bretagne (France, 1913) BB 11 13" x 10 F** 8 - 20 - 8 6 10 Y
World War II Type Flotation Main Guns Fire Level Fire Ratings Movement Armor Special
Graf Spee (Germany, 1934) PB 8 11" x 6 K 5 - 10 - 5 8 5 A, Y
Baltimore (USA, 1943) CA 8 8" x 9 K** 3 - 9 - 6 11 4 C, T, Y
Richelieu (France, 1939) BB 21 15" x 8 D** 0 - 24 - 24 10 13 B
Tromp (Netherlands, 1938) CL 4 6" x 6 R 1 - 1 - 1 10 1 C, T, Y
Exeter (Britain, 1930) CA 6 8" x 6 O* 2 - 4 - 3 10 3 C, T, Y
Yamato (Japan, 1940) BB 33 18" x 9 A+** 11 - 32 -22 9 16 B
Germany's BISMARCK (1939) Britain's DREADNOUGHT (1906)
The game has been designed so that warships perform on the tabletop as they did in real life. In general, the higher a ship's Flotation rating, the harder it is to sink it. Three knots translates into one movement factor (in other words, a ship with a top speed of 21 knots has a movement rating of 7). Armor is the protection rating of the ship; the higher the rating, the tougher it is to damage the ship through fire combat. Armor ratings are based on the thickness and quality of main belt armor, as well as general protection allotted to the ship's vitals. Fire ratings are given in stern-broadside-bow order, with higher numbers of course being more effective. Fire ratings are based on gun size. number, and quality, in relation to fire control considerations. As ships take hits, they lose speed as they take flotation damage, or firepower (reflected by Fire Level letters) when they take turret/fire control damage. Special ratings reflech characteristics regarding range modifiers, how often a ship may fire torpedoes, how particularly thin deck armor may be more susceptible to plunging fire, and more. Ships are divided by type: B (pre-dreadnought battleship), BB (dreadnought battleship), BC (battlecruiser), PB (pocket battleship), OB (offshore/obsolete battleship), AC (armored cruiser), C (crusier/protected cruiser), CA (heavy cruiser), CL (light cruiser), DD (destroyer); merchants are rated as being regular or armed. Being a game about surface naval combat, aircraft carriers and submaries are not covered in the game. Battleship Captain allows you to play all the surface combat situations (and examine all of the ships) from throughout the age of the battleship... all with one set of rules, and one unified game system.
Game play is straightforward. Ships maneuver (either individually or in formation) and when in range, can fire on the enemy. Faster moving ships have the advantage of moving after slower ships have executed their move. The sequence of play is: ships move half their speed for the turn, ships may fire, ships move the rest of their movement for the turn, ships may fire. That constitutes a complete game turn. Usually, a ship may fire only once per complete turn. When firing, you roll a single six-sided on the Fire Combat Table, and calulate first of all if the target was hit, then what damage (if any) occurred by rolling on a separate table. There are four different types of damage: T (turret/fire control), F (flotation), D (deck), and S (superstructure). When a ship gets damage markers, it looses effectiveness. Special damage and critical hits are taken care of by the Special Damage Table, so catastrophic hits are indeed possible.
Each of the three eras has its own rules for maximum firing range, how torpedoes are handled, formation rules, and so on. The battle of Tsushima will, therefore, see ships with the larger guns having a maximum range of 12,000 yards, while battleships at Jutland can fire up to 20,000 yards, and World War II guns 13" and larger can fire 28,000 maximum. (Gun range is dependent on gun size, era, and what (if any) optional rules are being utilized... and, naturally enough, fire is more effective at closer ranges) Different eras had different tactical considerations, so a squadron of pre-dreadnoughts must be handled quite differently than later eras to have maximum effectiveness. While the game was designed to use ships of a common era in battle against the enemy, since the rating system is consistent, gamers may play a myriad of "what if?" situations between warships of different eras. You'll be better able to appreciate the speed, firepower and overall excellence of, say, the USS Iowa class of battleships by comparing them with vessels of previous times and navies.
Battleship Captain stands in the line of The Mighty Hood / Battleships at War: Atlantic / Action Stations (all published by Minden, and designed by Gary Graber) as far as game system is concerned. The main differences are the hundreds of new ships included in all the eras, some tweaks to the Fire Combat Tables, and many new optional rules and scenarios. For instance, new, much more detailed Weather rules (covering all the globe) are provided, destroyers and merchants are integrated into the system, to give just a couple examples. As its predecessors, play routines in Battleship Captain are easy to implement, and do not involve the use of nearly endless modifier lists, figuring out shell trajectories, filling out detailed forms, and other tedious "process driven" mechanisms that can slow down play. Instead, the game system emphasizes playabiity and historicity, in that battles large and small can be set up and completed in a reasonable amount of time. Plenty of optional rules that create more chrome and detail are provided but they have remained "options," so players can craft the level of detail they are most comfortable with. (A list of some of the options include: ammunition levels, fire control coordination, incremental fire odds, smoke, crew quality, docked ships, shore batteries, Fire Rages (out of control fire on ships due to previous damage), scuttling, special rules for destroyers and merchants, mines, ramming, striking, flash vulnerability, extreme range for guns, and more.) The game design emphasizes the three main aspects of naval theory and construction: speed, firepower, and protection. There are trade offs among these categories, and Battleship Captain graphically illustrates the pros and cons of different ship designs. You will be able to tell, at a glance, the relative strengths and weaknesses of particular ships. Knowing these are key in handling them in battles. This information (Ship Ratings, by Era and Class) is also provided in tabular form as part of the rules.
Scenarios include the small (Battle of the River Plate 1939, Battle of Cocos 1914, Denmark Straight 1941, for instance) involving only a total of four or five ships, which can be set up and completed quickly, to large fleet sized action (Tsushima 1905, Jutland 1916), as well as many moderate sized hisotical and hypothetical scenarios. And, of course, players are free to "design their own" and with so many ships and options available, the possibilities are almost endless. It truly puts gamers in the role of opposing "battleship captains" and allows them to maneuver and replay all the classic situations on the high seas. It's all here, a comprehensive tour de force in a single package, with over a thousand individual ships represented!
**** Have questions about BATTLESHIP CAPTAIN? Visit its FAQ Page for answers about the game and its system!****
PRICE
$62 postpaid ($69 postpaid outside North America)
PAYPAL to: minden2 @ hotmail.com
Send check, money order, or Int'l Money Order (in US$) to: Minden Games, 9573 W. Vogel Avenue, Peoria, AZ 85345, USA.
Battleship Captain: Tactical Naval Combat Game, 1890-1945
Minden's comprehensive wargame of ship vs. ship combat in the Era of the Battleship
Also Available:
Battleship Captain: RULES $21 postpaid ($24 outside N.America). Just the BC rulebook, no other game parts.
TSUSHIMA (stand-alone game covering just the pre-dreadnought era, with 80 ships and several scenarios)
GRAND FLEET (as above, except covering the dreadnought era, with 80 ships)
BATTLEWAGONS (as above, except covering World War II era, with 80 ships)
